Title: Matchmaking
Disclaimer: I do not own Leverage or its characters and I make no profit from this. It's all for fun.
Spoilers: Maybe through season 2.
Pairing: Nate/Parker
Summary: Sophie keeps trying to set Nate up with various women. He's getting sick of it.
Author's note: I shamelessly stole the idea from 2.6: The Top Hat Job. Seriously, Sophie's trying to set up Nate with random people bothered me. So this is just a continuation off of that idea.
I just wanted to write something short and sweet…since every story I write tends to end up pretty long, I think I did well in staying within my goal! And of course, thanks to everyone who has reviewed/favorited my stories. You don't know how much it makes my day!
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"You didn't," Nate shook his head as he looked toward the table Sophie indicated. "We talked about this."
"You talked about it and I happily listened to your reasons, before choosing to ignore them." Sophie gave him a light shove toward their latest prospective client. "Now go over there and be charming."
Nate actually considered leaving, except at that moment he suffered the misfortune of having the woman at the table across the bar glance over and spot Sophie. She waved enthusiastically, gesturing them over.
He couldn't get out of it, not with the death-like grip Sophie had on him as she dragged him over. "Clara, this is who I was telling you about, Nathan Ford. Nate this is Clara Potter."
"It's nice to meet you," Clara said politely as Nate reluctantly sat down. Sophie acted as if she were about to before suddenly 'remembering' she had to meet a friend at the bar.
"I'll let you two talk about…logistics." Sophie said quickly, before making herself scarce, and all before Nate could even call her name.
The meeting was entirely pointless and Sophie damn well knew it. He had been unable to meet with Clara the week before, so Sophie had met with her instead. She'd all but accepted the case, and after laying it out for Nate he'd agreed – before Sophie presented her catch, which was that he had to have a meeting with Clara first. It was yet another transparent attempt by Sophie to try and 'set him up.' In fact, she hadn't even told him they were coming here to meet Clara. Sophie had said she wanted dinner. He would never believe her again. Which made him wonder why he had up until this point to begin with.
Sophie ordered the bartender to make her something fruity before joining Eliot and Hardison who she'd spotted at a nearby table. "Why are you two here?" She admonished.
"Once you told me your plan I couldn't miss it," Hardison pulled the umbrella out of his drink and spun it around. "You're so evil, Sophie."
"One of these days he's going to get sick of your passive-aggressiveness," Eliot warned.
Sophie took immediate affront. "That's completely unfair. How is me wanting Nate to be happy passive-aggressive?"
"Because you're mad he won't date you," Hardison said simply, which earned him such a glare that he quickly added, "which is my obviously wrong theoretical interpretation."
Several minutes passed, with the three of them watching Nate and Clara as if they were a particularly fascinating television drama. They were too far away to hear the conversation, but Eliot and Hardison found great humor every time Clara inched closer to Nate, and he responded by backing away.
"It's only a matter of time before he 'accidentally' spills his drink on her," Eliot shook his head. "This is so damn sad."
Hardison ordered them another round. "That woman is fine, what is wrong with Nate? I may go over there and ask her out."
Sophie narrowed her eyes at Clara, though the woman was oblivious to the scrutiny she was facing. "She's not that attractive."
Hardison and Eliot exchanged an exasperated glance, and at that moment Clara must have said something funny because Nate laughed in response. Sophie started muttering to herself about how Clara was actually pretty annoying if you had to spend an excessive amount of time in her company.
"You are the only woman I know who would purposely set someone up on a bad date – against their will, might I add – only to get mad after the fact because it might actually be going well." Hardison told her, but Sophie was so pre-occupied with studying every move the observed couple made that she didn't hear him.
For his part, Nate was trying to figure out the quickest and easiest way to extract himself from the situation. Not that Clara was that bad. She was attractive enough and seemed intelligent, but she tended to go on and on about her job (insurance analyst), she was pushy (seriously why did she keep invading his personal space?) and there was something about her he didn't like. Simply put, he wasn't attracted to her at all, and he wondered if Sophie had specifically picked the worst woman for him she could come up with. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure that was the case.
Interrupting her mid-sentence (because if he waited for her to stop talking it would be another half hour), he said he had to get another drink and 'consult with his colleagues.'
"Don't be gone long," Clara had smiled, trying to be charming but he found her tone to be more…creepy.
Once he'd put in his order at the bar, he walked over to the three people who suddenly pretended they weren't the least interested in him.
"And that is how you perform a comprehensive analysis in order to determine the best way to hack into an encrypted surveillance system," Hardison said too loudly, as Sophie and Eliot profusely thanked him for the 'explanation' as if they'd been dying to know it.
"Don't think for one second that I haven't seen you three staring at us," Nate leaned over the table and looked at each one of them menacingly in turn. "What is this, the viewing gallery?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Hardison said quickly, eyes locked onto his midori sour.
Sophie feigned agreement with Hardison and Eliot had the gall to say "Oh Nate, I didn't even know you were here."
But he really wasn't interested in the other two – his ire was directed solely at Sophie. "What did I ever do to you to deserve this?" He tried to go for 'pleading' but his words came out more clipped and angry than he intended.
His tone only increased Sophie's defensiveness. "Nate I set you up with an attractive, accomplished woman. I'm sorry I thought you two might hit it off. Is it so bad that I don't want you to be alone?"
Before he could answer, Hardison added, "Come on man, she is kind of hot."
Parker chose that moment to appear. "Hey Hardison, I got your message about how I was supposed to come down here if I wanted to witness something hysterical?"
Sophie and Nate both turned to Hardison who ignored them and mumbled something about how he must have sent that text by mistake.
Nate turned and stalked back to his table as Eliot filled Parker in on Sophie's latest matchmaking scheme.
"Poor Nate," Parker said in an extraordinary display of sympathy. "What if he wants to be alone, Sophie?"
"No one wants to be alone," Sophie said promptly, "except maybe you."
"Anyways," Parker went on, ignoring Sophie's jibe, "I didn't come down here just to watch Nate suffer – though thank you, Hardison, that is a perk. I spent the day following Darryl Washington and Nate told me I had to report to him what I found 'as soon as possible.'" Parker was referring to another case of theirs.
"You're going to have to wait," Sophie informed her, "because Nate is on a very successful date right now with Clara Potter. Thanks to yours truly."
Parker turned to observe as the woman, Clara, patted Nate on the shoulder. It was quickly hidden on his part, but she caught his grimace when Clara touched him. "Yes, they're obviously in love."
"Aren't they?" Sophie sighed before apparently remembering that she might not want the date to go that well in the first place. "I mean they wouldn't work out in the long-term but it'd be nice for Nate to date someone for a little while!"
"Really?" Hardison asked skeptically.
"I don't care either way," Eliot added.
Sophie ignored them. "Men, what do you know about romance!"
Some more time passed – 4 minutes exactly – before Parker decided she could no longer watch the train wreck occurring before her eyes. "This is interminable," she declared. "I'm not sitting around for another hour while Nate tries to escape from his date."
She ignored Sophie calling her name as she headed over to Nate and Clara's table, just catching the tail end of Clara's sentence to Nate. "-love to have three children myself, 2 boys and a girl. What about you?"
Nate choked on his water as Parker eyed them in disbelief. "You two are discussing children already? Wow Nate, you move fast."
"Excuse me, who are you?" Clara asked with obvious annoyance.
"Who are you?" Parker asked, instantly put out by Clara's tone.
"We're on a date here," Clara huffed, eyeing the blonde woman with distaste.
"Really? I was under the impression this was a business meeting. But –" she held up a hand to ward off Clara's protests, "the truth is I don't care, I have a question for Nate."
He'd recovered sufficiently enough to address Parker, and granted it wasn't his best decision ever, but when an opportunity presented itself… "Oh no, I didn't mean for you to see this…honey."
"What?" Both women addressed him at the same time, Clara with anger building and Parker with confusion.
"Clara, I haven't been honest with you. This is my girlfriend."
Parker was too stunned for the moment to answer, as Clara jumped up from the table, knocking over her drink in the process. "Your girlfriend? Sophie said you were single and looking to get married!"
"That's why she's fired," Nate said dryly. "Look we're more than happy to help you out with –"
"What is this, some kind of sick game?" Clara said furiously. "You seduce women in order to get them to hire your team?!"
"Nate? Seduce women?" Parker started laughing and couldn't stop even when Nate elbowed her in the side.
"Then once you have them buying everything you say, you send over your trampy, slut girlfriend to break it up, right? Hoping the woman will be mortified enough to back off but still desperate enough to need your help!"
"Wait a minute," Parker's mirth instantly disappeared. "Who are you calling someone's girlfriend?"
Nate turned to Parker in disbelief. "Seriously, that's the part you take issue with?"
"I am no one's girlfriend!" Parker nearly shouted, oblivious to the fact that she was gaining the attention of other patrons in the bar.
"I can see why," Clara sneered, looking her up and down. "I shouldn't have believed Nate's obvious lie claiming that you were. There's no way you're good enough for him."
"Not good enough?" Parker seethed, and Nate thought he might actually have to step in to prevent a physical altercation.
Clara started to respond, but he had no idea what she said because Parker suddenly spun to face him and pull him down into a searing kiss. He stumbled backward a few steps, but she followed, and he had no choice but to kiss her back. Really. After all, he was trying to make it look real for Clara. Right?
When they finally separated, he was dimly aware of the clapping and cheering of other customers in the bar. With the notable exception of the three people at table 2B who were staring at them with various expressions of shock.
"What was that?" He asked carefully, finding he couldn't seem to look away from Parker. But for her part, she couldn't seem to look away from him either.
"You started it," she said accusingly. "You have only yourself to blame."
"You sicken me!" He suddenly heard Clara say and turned to face her. He'd completely forgotten about her presence. She left in a fury and while he felt bad for a moment, it didn't last long.
"What are you doing?!" Sophie suddenly got over her surprise and yelled at him from 20 feet away.
"Seriously, how many women does this guy have?" Someone at a nearby table loudly asked his friend, and Nate decided he was staying away from this place for at least 6 months.
"Nate," Hardison called, "That is not the way to get business."
"Hey you never know," Eliot smirked, "Clara could come back. Nate certainly has a way with women."
Sophie threw money on the table to cover her drinks. "Nate," she told him angrily as he walked over, "You better be on your best behavior next time. This night was a disaster."
"I don't know," he said as they all left the bar, him and Parker trailing behind the other three. "I don't think it was so bad." He directed the last at Parker who glanced at him and quickly away, but not before he caught the beginning of a smile on her face. The brush of her fingers against his told him he hadn't imagined it, and he thought maybe Sophie did have a knack for matchmaking after all.